URGENT APPEAL FOR SOLIDARITY: RESPOND TO SEVEN DAYS’ SMEAR

The Liberty Union Party needs your help to demand that Seven Days inform voters and fairly report on the Liberty Union Party. Seven Days thinks Liberty Union is dead like Karl Marx. Let’s show them how wrong they are! We are going to fill their mailbox with letters to the editor to explain the truth.

I’m glad Seven Days broke the media silence on Liberty Union’s slate of candidates who are on the ballot this election. But I was quickly dismayed that Kevin Kelley’s article “Liberty Union Party Sticks to Its Ideals — and Keeps Losing” read more like a post-election obituary than a serious exploration of a party currently offering voters thirteen candidates across the state.

Liberty Union is a legally recognized major party with ballot access in Vermont. Despite not winning elections, Liberty Union has won thousands of votes and shaped the political debate in Vermont. Liberty Union does not enter elections to fish for votes with slick big-money campaigns and we don’t all have great hair. Instead Liberty Union is a moral compass for the state, speaking truth to power and holding government accountable. Elections are not just about who “wins.” The debate itself shapes governance.

Liberty Union is part of a global movement for socialism. Our ideas are still vibrant and relevant today. Look at the organizers and their message at the People’s Climate March in New York City September 21st. Socialists organized a conference with over a thousand attendees the day before. The award-winning journalist Naomi Klein was one of the most popular speakers, who says in her new book on climate change, This Changes Everything, “The really inconvenient truth is that it’s not about carbon – it’s about capitalism.” In this age of rampant capitalism and crisis, it is Kelley’s dismissive attitude that is out of step with history.

Kelley’s focus on money and marketing rather than the real political choices Vermonters will have on November 4th is a disservice to the voters. Seven Days shouldn’t be passing judgment without first informing voters and giving them a chance to think for themselves.